Touchpads are common in computing devices and accessories, like notebooks and Apple Air Mouse. Recently, touchpads are getting popular in remote control devices to control consumer electronics appliances. Touchpads allow mouse cursor navigation and selecting an application and executing a command, e.g. by single or double taps on the touchpad. A clickable button is also common and user-friendly for the same purpose. A conventional clickable button is separate from touchpad, as in most notebooks. A state-of-the-art clickable touchpad integrates the clickable button with touchpad, as seen in Apple Magic Mouse, Apple MacBook Air/Pro and Sony Remote Control. A touchpad integrated with buttons enable additional functions to be added into limited touchpad area. This result in a compact design including buttons besides touch, tap and click gestures.
A prior art clickable touchpad uses a hinge mechanism in which the touchpad hinges on one side and actuates a switch on the bottom side of the touchpad when a user clicks the touchpad. A hinge mechanism has the disadvantage of different click feeling depending on where the user clicks on the top side of touchpad.
US2013/0155017A1 describes a capacitive sensing device with flexure mechanisms to allow “non-uniform displacement”. This means movement includes a rotational component, not just a translational component.